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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28437252">There's The Rub</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/dixiehellcat/pseuds/dixiehellcat'>dixiehellcat</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tony Stark Bingo Round 4 [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adorable Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Ambiguous/Open Ending, Canonical Character Death, Djinni &amp; Genies, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Iron Family, Or...Maybe Not, Parent Pepper Potts, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:48:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,515</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28437252</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/dixiehellcat/pseuds/dixiehellcat</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A gift Pepper brings home for Morgan from a business trip after Tony’s death has an unexpected function.</p><p>Fills the "Morgan Stark" square on my Round 4 Tony Stark Bingo card number 4028. (required info collected below) Rated gen--only two cuss words, just so you know.</p><p>Spoiler in endnotes, for those concerned about the MCD tag. :)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Pepper Potts &amp; Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Pepper Potts/Tony Stark (mentioned)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tony Stark Bingo Round 4 [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009245</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Tony Stark Bingo Mark IV</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>There's The Rub</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Bingo specifics:<br/>Card Number: 4028<br/>Square Filled (Letter AND number AND prompt) S1, Morgan Stark<br/>Ship/Main Pairing: none (though Tony/Pepper are mentioned)<br/>Rating (Gen, Teen, Mature, Explicit) gen (two cuss words)<br/>Major Tags/Warnings/Triggers: Canonical Character Death, Or…Maybe Not, Adorable Morgan Stark, Mom Pepper Potts, Iron Family, Post-Endgame, Djinni, Ambiguous Ending, Grief<br/>Summary: A gift Pepper brings home from a business trip for Morgan after Tony’s death has an unexpected function.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was Pepper’s last day in Marrakech, and after pouring every ounce of her energy for a week into navigating business negotiations with Morocco Bioenergy, she felt the need for a break. With a soft scarf wrapped over her head, she headed for the marketplace to shop for some souvenirs. Morgan was deep into an Arabian Nights phase, and a gift from the East would brighten her day. Maybe a ‘flying carpet’ rug for her room, Pepper thought, although knowing her child, the kid would figure out a way to make the damned thing actually fly.</p><p>Gifts, she felt, were equally in order for the rotating pack of babysitters her daughter was probably running ragged. Things easily packed and unbreakable were Pepper’s targets. Spices for Happy’s cooking, brightly colored slippers for May, a keychain with a tiny camel on it for Peter, and a finely tooled leather belt for Rhodey went into her shopping bag. It was nice to just wander and not have to focus on much more than ignoring flirtatious young men, until the sound of a hammer striking metal made her shudder and hurry away from the blacksmiths’ souk before she embarrassed herself by bursting into tears at the sudden anguished memories the noise awoke.</p><p>She dove into a small shop, filled with copper, brass and silver goods. Lanterns, mirrors, candlesticks and teapots lined the walls and shelves, gleaming brightly, and she felt her heart’s pounding ease as she slowly walked around and took deep breaths of the scented air. On one shelf, sitting alone, she noticed a small brass lamp, simple in shape but cunningly etched. It looked like the one Robin Williams popped out of, she thought and smiled as she picked it up.</p><p>“<i>Bonjour, madame!</i>” a voice called, and a stout older man in baggy trousers and a tunic top approached with a big smile. “<i>Puis-je vous aider?</i>”</p><p>Pepper tried not to flinch. “I’m sorry,” she said with genuine regret. “I don’t speak much French. Do you speak English?” It was a lie, strictly speaking; she could manage the basics in French, but every time she did, she could hear Tony, in the back of her head, kidding her about her less than stellar accent. He had been so much better with languages than her, and listening to him speak them had been one of the myriad joys of her life with him that she missed. After all this time, it still hurt too much for her to deliberately expose those raw places to air or light.</p><p>“Ah!” the shopkeeper said, his smile not dimming. “Yes. I will practice my English with you, then. Forgive if I speak poorly. You like that lamp? It is special, set apart, for it was dedicated to a queen of the djinn.”</p><p>“Oh. It's you who must forgive me now, then. I didn’t know it was a religious item.” Pepper started to replace the little lamp on the shelf, but the seller shook his head, the tassel on his fez bouncing.</p><p>“No need. You were drawn to it. I saw you—you barely looked at any of my other wares. Its patron is Lady Rekya, the daughter of the Red King of the djinn. She is a particular guardian of women, so perhaps she wishes to look out for you, hm?”</p><p>Pepper cocked her head. “I visited a women’s bathhouse while I was here, and I think I did hear her name mentioned, when bathers came and left.”</p><p>“Yes, you would. Lamps like this one are crafted as offerings to her, and she dwells in all women’s <i>hammams</i>, as you said. You should take that one home with you. It wants to go.”</p><p>“My daughter is really into Aladdin right now. I think she would like it,” Pepper conceded.</p><p>“How old is she, your daughter?”</p><p>“Almost eight.”</p><p>“Ha, just old enough to really start trouble!” the merchant chuckled. “I have raised five daughters of my own, and I know.”</p><p>“Hopefully not. Morgan and I are…really close. Her father died three years ago, and we’ve been each other’s best friend, I guess you could say, in some ways, since then. She’s so bright and such a good kid, but sometimes I know she’s missing him, so I try to cheer her up any little way I can.”</p><p>The shopkeeper caught his breath, held up a finger and dashed behind a nearby counter, emerging with a piece of brown paper. He gently took the lamp from Pepper’s startled grasp and in a second had wrapped it up. “I was right,” he said as he pressed the neat little parcel back into her hands. “<i>Lalla</i> Rekya’s most especial care is given to widows and orphans. This is meant for you. May she protect you and your daughter.”</p><p>“How much?”</p><p>“No, no, it is a gift. It is meant to be, so how could I charge you for it? Go, go in good health and with the guard of the good queen.”</p><p>He shooed Pepper on her way, and she felt a bit dizzied by the whole encounter. The insistence of the merchant that she take it without pay felt entirely too much like those things in movies where somebody was trying to get rid of something cursed. As she browsed through other shops, she mused about whether she should ask Stephen Strange to inspect it, but pushed that thought aside. She had persuaded herself she did not hate the wizard—it wasn’t his fault, what had happened to Tony—but she couldn’t banish the pain of the memory of seeing him open a magical portal in the middle of Central Park, the moment that had ended anything like a normal life for her and Tony forever. Strange had done his best to be kind, but she couldn’t deal with seeing him often or for very long.</p><p>She did end up buying a rug, a squishy-thick, intricately patterned one she put on the floor of their bedroom--no, <i>her</i> bedroom; it was still so hard to think of it that way now, as hers, not hers and Tony’s. In her heart of hearts, it would always be hers and Tony’s, just as the lake house itself always would hold his presence. Sometimes, when she sat on the rug to do yoga, it did feel like a magic carpet. She closed her eyes and smiled to herself and imagined flying, wind in her hair, without need for the Rescue suit she hadn’t worn since the day she watched Tony die.</p><p>As for the lamp, Morgan loved it, and set it on the table by her bed. “I rubbed the lamp,” she whispered a few nights later while her mother tucked her in, “and a genie came out. No, you say it <i>djinn</i>, they said.”</p><p>“Is he blue?” Pepper teased. “Like the one in the movie?”</p><p>Morgan cocked her head and rolled her eyes, in that way she had of sometimes looking so much like Tony that Pepper’s heart stopped for a beat. “No, mom. They’re brown. They wear a blue scarf around their head though. Not a he or she either. They won’t tell me their name, but they say I can call them Abbas the Lion because they kinda look like one sometimes.”</p><p>The imaginary friend stuck around. Morgan confided all her childish secrets to it, and Pepper smiled fondly at the wealth of little factoids about djinn she chirped at mealtime or during baths. She wondered how many of them were made up by that amazingly fertile little brain, and how many were actually researched; when an interest took her little girl’s fancy, she was all in, another way she was so like Tony that it was a constant joy and a steady ache all at once. </p><p>Overall, Pepper hoped that letting her have her head in this creative jaunt was a positive thing. It certainly seemed to be, until the day Morgan came running into the kitchen while Pepper was putting clean dishes away. “Mom! Mom, I need you. Abbas is mad, and you need to come talk to them.”</p><p>Pepper frowned down. Morgan looked legitimately distressed. “Honey,” she began, not sure how to follow. Saying <i>I have no idea what to say to calm your imaginary friend down</i> didn’t seem helpful. “Okay,” she said, crouched and took a tiny hand in hers. “Slow down and tell me what the problem is.”</p><p>“Abbas says I lied to them. They say they’ll call their queen, and the other djinn, and they will eat us up! And Gerald and the rabbits too.” </p><p>She grimaced, and Pepper fought back a heated rush of concern. Children were incredibly resilient, and Pep had hoped Morgan was handling the whole situation, being the heir to Stark Industries and the orphaned only child of the hero who saved the universe, fairly well on the whole; but if this fancy was distressing her so badly, maybe it needed to be quashed. <i>I should’ve asked May</i>, she thought. <i>Did Peter go through a phase like this after he lost his parents or his uncle?</i> She couldn’t even remember if May had ever said how old Peter was when she and Ben took him in. Maybe he’d outgrown this period already. Did she know anybody else to ask? Not really; she didn’t know the parents of Morgan’s classmates well enough to hit them with something this out of the ordinary, and the people she did know who took ‘out of the ordinary’ with a yawn didn’t have small children. With a repressed sigh, she continued to feel her way along. “All right. Why do I need to talk to your invisible friend about this disagreement between you and him—excuse me, them?”</p><p>“Abbas isn’t invisible all the time, they just don’t want you to see them usually. And you have to talk to them, because you saw it. I wasn’t there because I was too little, but you were, so they’ll believe you.”</p><p>With a sudden sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, Pepper said carefully, “What, baby? What did I see?”</p><p>The small face turned up to hers was grave far beyond her years. “Daddy,” Morgan said simply. “You saw daddy, when he died.”</p><p>Numb from shock, Pepper let Morgan pull her by the hand up the stairs and down the hall to her room. The door was closed, but a fizzing noise and a whiff of smoke was coming from beyond it. Her chest clenched, and the realization that something was very wrong with her little girl crashed in. <i>What’s she been doing in there? I let this go on too long, has she set something on fire, fuck I wish Tony were here—he’d have known what to do, I was never cut out to be a parent let alone a single one—</i></p><p>No matter how bad she was at this, she had no choice but to open the door, confront the evidence of whatever was going on, and then find someone to help her get Morgan the help she needed. The doorknob turned in her hand. </p><p>The room looked perfectly normal, just like it always did, a middle ground between the cheerful chaos Tony’s living spaces had always embraced and Pepper’s focused organization. Normal, that is, except for the familiar brass lamp sitting on the floor, and the figure hovering in the air above it. The form was incomplete, only a muscular upper body, and while it looked generally humanoid, the long fingernails, hints of sharp fangs, and slitted golden eyes reminded Pepper of Morgan’s explanation of her djinn friend’s alias.</p><p>The fear for Morgan that had nearly overwhelmed Pepper was swept away by a moment of bizarre relief—her baby wasn’t sick, or disturbed—followed in the next instant by a wave of white-hot fury. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?” she snapped. “You are not welcome here. You were not invited in, most certainly not to upset my child. <i>Get out.”</i></p><p>She had no idea whether djinn worked like vampires, where a resident of a house had to bid them enter, but it seemed like as good a place to start as any. The djinn looked unfazed, though. “Actually, I was indeed invited,” they returned loftily. “Morgan said to me that I was welcome to visit her at any time.”</p><p>“And you’re going to take the word of a child over that of their parent?” Pepper snarled. Every now and then, her ability to rein in her emotions reached its breaking point, and right now having to deal with some supernatural creature and their attitude and bullshit was it. In short, she was done. She hated to use her privilege as a weapon, but she had learned how to, in the service of others, not herself, and now looked like a good time to break that weapon out. She drew herself up and in her coldest CEO voice said, “I want to speak with your manager.” The djinn gaped. “You heard me. Clearly you are not the person in charge, so I’m going to talk with whoever is.”</p><p>“Mere mortals do not just summon a queen of the djinn,” they started in a huff.</p><p>Pepper rolled right over their words. “I have wept with  the Sorcerer Supreme of all earth, gotten drunk with gods, and cooked dinner for living embodiments of the forces of the universe. I hardly think I count as a mere <i>anything</i>. Now, put me in touch with your supervisor. Hopefully we can settle this quickly and reasonably; but you will <i>not</i> threaten my child and escape the consequences.”</p><p>It was darkly pleasing to see the being’s catlike face taken aback and frankly looking shaken, just before it vanished with a puff. Morgan looked up with a half-smile, her little fingers still curled around her mother’s. “That was cool,” she said. “You sounded like the time we went to Disney World with Princess Shuri and her friends, and that boy selling ice cream was mean to her and you made him go get his boss and stand there while you told the boss what he did wrong and how you wouldn’t ever let anybody at Stark Industries act like that.”</p><p>She gave a firm little nod of approval, and Pepper almost laughed out loud. Sometimes she forgot, still, that she always had a very important audience of one. She just hoped she was teaching her baby the right things, because this child was a sponge for knowledge just like her daddy was.</p><p>With a poof of incense smoke, two figures appeared. One was the djinn Pep already upbraided; the other was taller, with a clearly feminine appearance. Her long black hair hung in careful curls around her dark face; bracelets jingled around her wrists, and anklets around her ankles, which looked like a pony’s legs complete with hooves. Large dark eyes, expertly made up, took in her surroundings, and a corner of Pepper’s mind briefly and foolishly wished she had had time to tidy Morgan’s room and put her in some clean play clothes. “My servitor tells me we have an issue here,” she said in a low voice that sounded accustomed to being heeded. </p><p>Pepper nodded. “I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding,” she answered, and explained how the lamp came to be in her possession and Abbas (now hovering on the fringe of the exchange with a downright comical pout) was accidentally summoned by Morgan at play. “It was never our intent to disturb you or your folk. I will have the lamp removed and placed wherever you consider appropriate.” Even while her heart was railing in protective anger, her cool business side reminded her she had to stay calm and be polite. “But you and yours will not disturb or upset my child again. She has been through more than enough, in her short life, so I must insist you accord us the same courtesy I extend to you, and leave us in peace.”</p><p>“I am well aware of your story, wife of Tony Stark,” the queen surprised her by replying. “Women and children, especially those feeling the pain of losing their loves, are under my protection, so the summons was no trouble. Abbas was more than willing to care for a girl-child missing her father, until we learned that that account was not true.”</p><p>“Hell yes, it’s true.” Pepper fought to keep her composure, the image of Tony’s battered face, the light fading from his beautiful eyes, tearing at her as though that horrible day had just happened. “I knelt in the dirt beside him and watched him die.”</p><p>“That may have been what you saw,” said Rekya, “but my people have old knowledge and ways, and know both the living and the dead. Humans were not the only ones to suffer under the madness of Thanos. The djinn realms lost half our number to his snap too, then got them back. We know and honor the Iron Man and his sacrifice to save the universe. We would even have sought a way to avenge his death, to honor his courage, but he did that himself.” Her wide mouth twitched as if amused at the poetic justice of Tony’s snap taking out the one responsible for his own death.</p><p>“This minion of mine,” she went on, “was more than honored to pledge their service to protect his family, and when they came to me with the news that they had met the daughter of Tony Stark, I too was overjoyed. I ordered my subjects to scour the realms for anything they might find as a suitable gift for Morgan. Specifically, anything that might hold a remaining trace of his spirit. We are skilled at finding such things, but they found nothing. Then I tried the most potent magic I knew, to locate his spirit—and I am much older than I seem to mortal eyes, and possess magic that mortals, even mortal sorcerers, have never even imagined. But it too failed.”</p><p>Pepper blinked. “I’m…not surprised, really,” she offered. “Tony was never religious, so I wouldn't expect to find whatever might in theory be left of him in your conception of a heaven—”</p><p>“No!” the queen insisted, even stomping her dainty hooved foot. “That’s not how this works. I searched the <i>barzakh</i>, the veiled place where the souls of all mortals sojourn after death, be they followers of the Prophet, peace be upon him, or people of the book, or unbelievers; and as far as the edge of <i>al-Akhirah</i>, the eternal afterworld, beyond which even my power cannot reach. It should not have failed…unless he is not dead.”</p><p>Pep’s brain stuttered to a halt, but Morgan pulled her hand suddenly away and stormed across the room. “You’re mean!” she yelled at Rekya. “And you’re wrong. Mom’s sad all the time. You think she would be, if daddy was here? If daddy was anyplace? And you think she wouldn’t tell me? Shit!”</p><p>“Morgan!” Pepper was aghast. “Watch your language!”</p><p>“Sorry,” Morgan said, not looking away from the queen, and not sounding sorry in the least. “Daddy always said that was your word.” Pepper could almost hear Tony saying that, and it did not help her hold back tears, or the mingled horror and rage and agony tearing through her heart. </p><p>The cat-djinn drifted forward, and Pepper moved to intercept them, but Morgan was on a roll. “You’re even meaner!” she shouted and pointed at them. “You said you’d be my friend, and then you called us liars and said you were gonna eat us and the animals!”</p><p>The queen’s scowl dropped a bit, into a more bemused look. “Abbas…you didn’t.” One beringed hand rose to hide her face, and she shook her head. “I should never have turned you into a carnivore the last time you overreacted,” she groaned. “This time, it’s a couple of centuries as a seed-eater, you hear me?” She reached toward Morgan, and a wisp of glowing smoke curled from her fingers. </p><p>Broken free from her momentary paralysis of shock, Pepper lunged forward. “Don’t you dare—”</p><p>“I mean her no harm, nor you. Neither do <i>they</i>,” Rekya added with a glare shot toward her now thoroughly abashed subject. “Abbas has a good heart, but they are entirely too jealous of their dignity. When they thought you had deliberately deceived them to gain our favor, they made a leap they should never have made.” Her other hand extended toward Pepper with another tendril of smoke—or maybe magic—twisting her way with a pleasant spicy scent. “I can see, though, that their assumption is not the case. Whatever truly befell her father, Morgan spoke her truth—she, and you, are convinced he no longer dwells among the living.”</p><p>“But,” Pepper said slowly, “your magic can’t find him among the—the dead.”</p><p>“No.” Now the djinn queen looked intrigued. “And I would like very much to know why. Wouldn’t you?”</p><p>Pepper took a deep breath, shaken but determined. “Yes,” she said, “I most certainly would.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Spoiler note, for those skipping down here--this story, at least thus far, is Endgame canon compliant, meaning Tony is presumed to be dead. As to whether or not he stays that way, honest to gosh, I do not know at this point. lol. I mean, if you've read any of my other stuff, you may know my brand is kind of 'how many different ways can I save the universe and Tony too'. This one, I'm not sure about. The story is shot from Pepper's point of view, set about three years post, and she is still missing him, and is concerned about how Morgan is coping.</p><p>The seed of this story has been rattling around in my head for a good while. When I decided to put it into words for bingo, I figured I'd have to go into hiding, because I had no idea what happens next. Still don't, really, although in the course of writing this much, I have come up with a few ideas. If you have strong feelings about what is going on here, please, feel free to share it. You might end up writing the sequel. lol. Or we might write it together. Or I might write it and give you credit. Or if nothing else we can all just enjoy your concept here. :D Whatever works for you, dear readers.</p><p>ETA to share the original spark for the story, by a wonderful Islamic scholar who regularly posts delightfully detailed threads on twitter about Muslim folklore. https://twitter.com/aaolomi/status/1187072353219612673</p></blockquote></div></div>
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